This informative, illustrated guide to the British Railways locomotive series covers its full production lifespan, from 1962–1965. In the early 1960s, the Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotive known as The Clayton was conceived as the new standard for British Railways, superseding other Type 1 classes. While the early classes suffered from poor driver visibility, the Claytons were highly successful and popular with operating crews. However, the largely untested high-speed, flat Paxman engines proved to be highly problematic. As a result, the Claytons were eventually withdrawn from BR service by December 1971. Anthony Sayer draws on considerable amounts of archive material to tell the full story of these ‘Standard Type 1’ locomotives and the issues surrounding their rise and fall. Further sources provide insights into the effort and money expended on the Claytons in a desperate attempt to improve their reliability. Supported by over 280 photographs and diagrams, dramatic new insights into this troubled class have been assembled for both historians and modelers alike.
The Type 3 Diesel Locomotive album comprises over 200, mainly unpublished, full sized colour photographs of four classes of British engines, developed in the earlier years of the Modernisation Plan.The Type 3 included four classes of locomotive of medium power output, which undertook a wide range of duties from Main line and local passenger services, various freight duties and departmental work. Several are still in use on the national network, and can be seen in various parts of the countryThe Book has been compiled by David Cable, who has authored a range of very successful colour albums for Pen and Sword Books Ltd. The photos illustrate the many duties and colour schemes of the classes in a variety of locations and colour schemes of the classes in a variety of locations, using largely unpublished photographs from his extensive collection.
The Great Southern Railways of Ireland was the largest of the major Irish railways and was created in 1924 by the amalgamation all the railways which were completely within the Irish Free State, as it was called at that time. This book includes all locomotives inherited by the GSR in 1924, broad and narrow guage.
A thorough history of the Metropolitan-Vickers locomotive, also known as “Class 28,” featuring 160 color and black & white photos. This book provides an in-depth history of the Metropolitan-Vickers diesel-electric Type 2 locomotives, more frequently known collectively as the “Co-Bo’s” due to their unusual wheel arrangement. Twenty locomotives were constructed during the late-1950s for use on the London Midland Region of British Railways. The fleet was fraught with difficulties from the start, most notably due to problems with their Crossley engines, this necessitating the need for extensive rehabilitation work during the early-1960s. Matters barely improved and the option to completely re-engine the locomotives with English Electric units was debated at length, but a downturn in traffic levels ultimately resulted in their demise by the end of 1968 prior to any further major rebuilding work being carried out. Significant quantities of new archive and personal sighting information, supported by over 180 photographs and diagrams, have been brought together to allow dramatic new insights into this enigmatic class of locomotives, including the whole debate surrounding potential re-engining, their works histories, the extended periods in storage, together with in-depth reviews of the various detail differences and liveries.
An in-depth look at the British railway company’s celebrated class of steam locomotives, with more than three hundred photos. Built by Collett in 1927 after pressure to restore the Great Western Railway’s pre-eminence in motive power and cope with increasing postwar traffic to Devon and Cornwall holiday resorts, the thirty Kings were the final development of the Churchward Stars and the 1923 Castles and remained on top-link main line duty until their final replacement by the ‘Western’ class 52 diesel hydraulics in 1962. This book includes an insight into the thinking of some of Collett’s senior staff at the end of the 1930s and the eventual transformation in the latter years with redraughting and double chimneys. As well as describing their design and construction, the book comprehensively covers their operation and performance, backed up by many recorded logs on all main GW/WR routes over which they were permitted. The author had close experience of the class when working at Old Oak Common between 1957 and 1962, and includes a chapter of his experiences with them, including many footplate trips (as a management trainee, he was greeted with glee by firemen who would hand him the shovel). The book also includes over 300 photographs, one hundred of them in color.
Engines from every region could be found at Stratford TMD during the 1980s and 90s - making it an ideal hunting ground for the rail enthusiast. Photographer Roger Rounce presents a collection of his own images of diesels and electrics from those days when Stratford used any Class 47 to hand for Norwich trains and journeys between Chelmsford and Liverpool Street could just as easily be hauled by an Eastfield Class 47 as one shedded at Stratford. Visiting Class 37s were also used on empty stock and Cambridge trains. Locomotives of Stratford Depot includes Class 08s, 31s, 37s and 47s alongside less common classes such as 20, 58, 60, 86 and 87. Details of each locomotive pictured include when it was built, when it was scrapped, names currently and previously held, other numbers carried, historical notes and dates.
Little is available on Britain's successful AC routes and the stock built for them and with the demise of older types of rolling stock and even the preservation of some samples, this is an appropriate time for a retrospective such as this book.